identity.

well, if you haven't heard by now, I am going back to Haslett at the semester change (end of January-ish). I've made this choice for a lot of different reasons...basically, the bottom line is that homeschooling isn't working out as well as I'd hoped. I'm going to miss everyone a lot, except we'll still be hanging out and everything so I won't have to miss you guys! :) ok, now on to what this post is actually about:

I read this quote by A. W. Tozer the other day, which really got me thinking. Here it is:

"A great deal can be learned about people by observing whom an what they imitate. The weak, for instance, imitate the strong; never the reverse. The poor imitate the rich. The self-assured are imitated by the timid and uncertain, the genuine is imitated by the counterfeit, and people all tend to imitate what they admire.

By this definition power today lies with the world, for it is the world that initiates an the church that imitates what she has initiated. By this definition the church admires the world. The church is uncertain and looks to the world for assurance. A weak church is aping a strong world to the amusement of intelligent sinners and to her own everlasting shame."
-A. W. Tozer

Guys, this is really true. I mean...we say we want to walk and talk and be like Jesus, but then who (or what) do we look to to define us? I know for girls it's so easy to be defined by the moral standards of the world - to wear really tight jeans or that one shirt that dips just a tiiiiiny bit lower than is probably "good". I fall into that trap all the time...I find myself buying into the lies of the world, claiming my identity in the lies that are preached through our culture. When I think about it, I realize that's not where I want to be. I don't want to be a world worshipper...I want Jesus to be the One who forms every aspect of my life, my true Maker. When I think about my "identity" and where it should be, 1 Peter 2:9 comes to mind. It says, "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." 

Does that blow anyone else's mind? We were specifically called out of the bondage that held us in the darkness before our salvation. We aren't slaves to it anymore. We don't have to just try to become what the world tries to bend us to. The world doesn't hold our ultimate agenda anymore. Our agenda, our schedule for life, is found in Jesus Christ alone.